Hostage

It’s a rollicking, propulsive and compulsive yarn that also manages to give two great parts to two women of a certain age then leaves them to get on with it as characters rather than symbols.

Despite some truly far-fetched storylines and one rather salacious twist, “Hostage” is certainly worth the ride.

This is one of those TV shows that is made for a binge-watch, because although questions arise in every episode, the writers leave just the right number of revelations to keep you invested from start to finish.

Hostage is one of the best British dramas I’ve seen this year, and I couldn’t tear myself away from all five episodes – which is why I wish this wasn’t a Netflix show.

Can a series be geopolitically preposterous and still be a bingeable romp? Sure, and there are plenty of examples, though not many as forthrightly crackpot and provocative as “Hostage.”

In five fast-paced episodes, Hostage introduces more than enough twists and red herrings to keep us coming back for more. Like many contemporary political dramas, however, you may find it more enjoyable if you politely hand-wave its relationship to real-world politics.

A solid binge for viewers who like their thrillers lean, entertaining, and somewhat vacuous.

Hostage is surely a good time – it's a series that is entertaining, has some fine performances, is slightly surprising in parts and fits the binge-watch model perfectly. It just won't be one that you'll likely remember after watching.

The trouble is, beneath the series' slick exterior lies a slightly wonky storyline – one that ranges from the shrug-worthy to the downright jump-the-shark.

Perhaps Chapman and his team will find a satisfying way to bring the personal and political drama of Vivienne Toussaint and Abigail Dalton together in the last two hours in a manner that makes the shallow nature of these three episodes feel like table-setting. It’s possible, but the cheap cliffhanger to end the third hour makes it seem even less likely that viewers are going to get a satisfying, meaty payoff.

Neither impressive nor dreadful, the series is adrift in the doldrums of artistry. If they handed out Emmys for dull television, then I am certain “Hostage,” a limited British series now airing on Netflix, would make a clean sweep.

Ultimately, though, Hostage feels like five stories crammed into one and sometimes less really is more. In this case, a lot less.